The 15th Meetings Africa has just been hosted in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre. South Africa National Convention Bureau Chief Convention Bureau Officer, Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo (pictured), spoke at the opening address, and one keynote addressed Expo 2020 Dubai, at which all 54 of the African nations will be participating. From Exhibition World…
Many DMOs (Destination Marketing Organisations) have started to realise the true value of meetings and are tracking the social outcomes they deliver. Some governments include business events as part of policy. Karen Bolinger, Strategic Advisor at Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance, talks “beyond tourism” legacies. From City / Nation / Place…
Often legacies we leave behind are not as much under our control as we might like. Stylianos Filopoulos, Board Member of the European Society of Association Executives, argues that association leaders are not the sole drivers of association legacy, but caretakers who protect the vision that inspires and unites members and stakeholders. From Boardroom…
Despite not sending food waste to landfill sites for over a decade now, Olympia London has introduced new measures to make sure excess isn’t created in the first place. The venue has also partnered with the sustainability advocacy group WRAP, which runs the “Guardians of Grub” campaign, to track food waste. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
The Iceberg is now identifying and celebrating the greater mass of hard-to-see business events legacies that lie hidden beneath the surface in a new podcast “Below the Waterline”. In the fifth of a series featuring significant meetings industry players, Iceberg founder James Latham catches up with Talley Management Group President and CEO Gregg Talley. Gregg…
Meetings Africa 2020 is currently preparing to open up shop at the Sandton Convention Centre. The show is celebrating fifteen years as the continent’s premier industry event. The Iceberg has been hearing about South Africa’s own approach to its meetings business from the Chief Executive Officer of South African Tourism, Sisa Ntshona. As a young democracy…
Laboratory medicine in the Middle East is now experiencing healthy growth. The trend helped Medlab Middle East 2019, the region’s largest sector exhibition and congress, to generate over $152 million of business, with $329 million more in deals twelve months after the show. The 2020 edition has just wrapped up. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Copenhagen’s strong life sciences sector has proved to be fertile ground for researchers in reproduction, with the city winning the 36th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. The event is expected to attract 10,000 experts on infertility and reproduction to the Bella Center this July. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Japan is hosting a “smart farming” conference this year as its manufacturers use technology to improve yield efficiencies in the sector. The International Conference on Agricultural Internet of Things and Smart Farming is being held this April in Tokyo. It comes as the Osaka-based Kubota Corporation has unveiled a fully autonomous tractor. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Mobile World Congress, the huge smartphone conference, has been cancelled after significant exhibitors pulled out citing the coronavirus crisis. The association behind the event, GSMA, could have to foot the bill for the entire cost of cancellation unless Spain’s government declares the outbreak a health emergency. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
As a founding member of twenty years’ standing, the departure of Edinburgh from Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance came as quite a shock. BestCities’ new MD Lesley Williams felt the loss very keenly, having in the past spent seven years as Head of Business Tourism at Marketing Edinburgh’s Convention Bureau. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, has postponed its Macau Asia-Pacific Conference and Digital Innovation Forum, set to take place early next month. Over 300 delegates were expected at the Iceberg partner’s event, which due to the coronavirus crisis in China will now take place “later in the year”. From Association Meetings International…
In China, major venues like the Wuhan International Convention and Exhibition Center have been repurposed as temporary hospitals during the novel coronavirus crisis. But British nationals evacuated from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, have been taken to Kents Hill Park hotel and conference centre to spend fourteen days in quarantine. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
On the occasion of the UFI Global CEO Summit in Rome, Pope Francis invited the meeting’s one hundred participants to a private audience in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina. His Holiness spoke and shook hands with every delegate, and told them their events would “contribute to a more just and humane global economy”. From UFI…
Glasgow’s Conference Ambassador Programme, the first in the UK, has contributed at least £650 million to the city’s economy since it started thirty years ago. The scheme has 1,600 members. 141 events, indeed 35 percent of all meetings held in Glasgow last year, were led by a local conference ambassador. From Association Meetings International…
The Joint Meetings Industry Council, which presents The Iceberg, has put out a statement about coronavirus. President Kai Hattendorf said the crisis showed that freedom and will to travel to meetings can be easily affected. But events are also the best way to address such issues. Photo: CDC / Dr Fred Murphy. From Association Meetings International…
Travel restrictions are in force across the globe as the number of cases of novel coronavirus continues to grow worldwide and the death toll within China mounts. The outbreak is now disrupting meetings all across the region. A UN biodiversity meeting was relocated. IT&CM China and CTW China have been postponed. From Association Meetings International…
Attendees at the recent UFI Global CEO Summit in Rome were granted a private audience in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina with Pope Francis. His Holiness said that trade fairs and exhibitions were benefitting regional economies while “showcasing to the wider world the rich diversity and beauty of local cultures and ecosystems”. From UFI…
Homeless hackathons, like those being held this year in Edinburgh, Montreal, Barcelona, Dundee and London, are one way for meetings to tackle this pressing social issue. The MD of organiser Gallus Events recently had a personal experience of homelessness outside COP25, the UN Climate Change Conference, in Madrid. From Association Meetings International…
The Iceberg recently published German Convention Bureau MD Matthias Schultze’s views about the multisite BOCOM conference being held this April. As the coronavirus crisis devastates the whole global meetings industry, this borderless communication event’s approach could perhaps not be more timely. From Matthias Schultze via LinkedIn…
As coronavirus isolates China from outside countries, Ping Liu, CEO of destination management company and professional congress organiser China Star, offers cultural views on how her business is approaching cancellations and postponements. Links to Professional Convention Management Association resources on coronavirus. Photo: Painjet. From PCMA…
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